barely legal | max verstappen ✓

chapter 2 | barely legal

«The things we did, the things you hide, and for the record, it's between you and I.»

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It was awkward. No, it was strange. But they were civil. All three of them were adults. Just three normal people having lunch in Monaco, there was nothing odd about it. They just had to ignore the background story that had led to that lunch in the first place. It was funny for Sloane, in one way or another, that she was sharing a meal with Aurora and Charles now that they were dating because they never did something like that when she herself dated Charles.

Okay, yeah. It was a bit weird she could admit that. And she was sure the other two thought the same. But they could remain civil for Aurora's sake. Her friend was going back to London the next day, so they had to do what they had to do. Be friendly and nice to each other.

Sloane pulled at the neckline of her turtleneck, suddenly feeling like she was cooking inside the piece of clothing. It was very hot in Monaco, but of course, she had to hide the obvious little gift adorning her neck. A turtleneck shirt hadn't been her first option, but in the end, it was that or a very ugly scarf. Nobody could say Sloane didn't try to get rid of the hickey with every possible solution she found on the internet, almost scarring her own neck with a spoon and everything, but the thing simply did not go away. Her makeup had been useless as well, and she had discovered she most likely needed to change her shade. After noticing and briefly talking about it, Aurora kept pushing to know who had done that to her. Sloane just remained quiet and shrugged whenever the topic was brought into the conversation. Just her mysterious Monaco fling, that's how Aurora called him. Max.

Although her friend had seen it, that didn't mean she was okay with everyone looking at her like she had been attacked by Dracula himself. So turtleneck it was. All those thoughts were in her head as they sat eating in pure silence.

Out of a sudden, Charles sighed deeply and decided to be the first one to stop the quietness that had started to linger for far too long between the three of them. Sloane could notice Aurora getting anxious. She would have made a joke, if not for the fact that it was probably the wrong time to do that.

Charles moved on his seat and looked at her. "This place is really huge. I didn't know your parents had that much money. It's pretty nice." He even added an awkward chuckle at the end. Perhaps to try and sound more collected. Or simply because he didn't know how to act around her anymore.

Sloane stared at him and Aurora sighed. It wasn't like she cared about that, but he was kind of right. The place was really nice. She never gave a lot of thought to how much money her parents had. She knew they had enough to live comfortably, or more comfortably than the average person. Sloane just never tried to investigate how rich they actually were.

It turned out that they were perhaps more wealthy than she had imagined before. Not that she was complaining. That wasn't her business anyway. Ever since she started earning money with her modelling gigs, she pretty much afforded her own life. With a few exceptions here and there, for example, her father lending his flat in Monaco to her. She could recognise she was privileged, she never denied that.

"Yeah, it's nice. I didn't know they had that much money either. I guess." She sounded very stiff. By the looks of it, he'd taken that as a bad sign because the colour seemed to drain from his face. Sloane just blinked. It was like he was scared of her. She would've thought that was funny if Aurora weren't involved.

Charles cleared his throat. "I'm very sorry. That was a weird and intruding thing to say. I didn't mean to—"

"Charles, it's fine." Sloane cut him off before he started one of those apologetic rambles she knew from him. Her voice had maybe come out a bit too exasperated or tired because he tried again.